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Going Digital

By Angela Wolff

 It’s the question every photographer asks when making the switch from film to digital: Which camera is right for me? It should be no surprise that the answers are as varied as their subjects and work styles.

For many, the decision boils down to the equipment already in use; sticking with the same manufacturer can shorten the learning curve and cut costs. For others, a close examination of business needs balanced with camera capability will help clarify the choice. But whatever you do, don’t make the decision based on cost alone.

“A lot of people are buying on price, and with [these things] you just can’t do that,” said Lon Atkinson of Atkinson! Studios in San Diego. “You need to carefully define your specific needs and pick based on what best fits your business.”

Finding the right camera

When Atkinson, a specialist in product advertising who does 75 percent of his work in the studio, selected the first digital camera for his business in 1992, he says the decision was relatively easy. There were few manufacturers, and for Atkinson the Leaf DCB camera was the obvious choice. He stuck with the Leaf camera for eight years, though he now admits it was about two years too long.

“Eighty-five percent of my work is with inanimate objects, so the multiple-shot digital cameras [like the Leaf] were fine,” he said. “But we had clients wanting more and more models, so we were interested in single-shot cameras at the same time.”

It was time for a new camera, but by 2000 the market was more crowded and the decision was harder to make. Atkinson took a unique approach and asked all the main manufacturers come to him for a mini trade show.

“I invited a friend with gray hair, because gray hair is hard to shoot, and had him hold his fluffy dog and a brightly colored object,” Atkinson said. “We took pictures with each system and then compared the images to select the best digital back for our business.”

 Atkinson switched to the Sinar 23, the first large format digital camera with the ability to do multi-shot for products and single-shot for models. “This has fulfilled the best of both worlds.” 

Going with what you know

Many photographers select digital equipment based on his experience with film cameras by the same manufacturer. Bruce Kluckhohn  of Minneapolis works primarily on location for magazine features. And as team photographer for the Minnesota Wild, he also shoots a lot of sports. Kluckhohn made the switch to the Canon EOS-1D after using the EOS-1N with film.

“The bodies of these cameras are almost identical,” he said. “The little focusing features, and the controls for aperture and shutter speed flow exactly the same as my film cameras. So, other than the digital stuff, the features were virtually the same.”

The 1D’s speed is important to Kluckhohn - at 8 fps it’s fast enough to shoot sports - but just as important is the buffer speed. “It’s got such a high buffer speed that in the year and a half I’ve had the camera I’ve only run out of buffer three times, and I’ve shot maybe 20,000 frames,” he said.

Kluckhohn’s other favorite feature is the “personal white balance.”

“As the team photographer for the Minnesota Wild, I shoot 50 or so events on the ice with strobe,” he said. “With the personal white balance I set it once and I’m right on. I don’t have to establish it each time I go there.”

When two is better than one

The digital camera Rick Friedman  uses depends on the assignment. A Boston-based photojournalist, editorial and corporate photographer whose subjects include politicians, entertainers, athletes and CEOs, Friedman uses the Canon EOS-1Ds  and the Canon EOS-10Ds for his work. “For street news or sports, the EOS-1Ds is absolutely amazing,” he said. “It focuses like nothing else I’ve seen and combined with the 8 fps, it makes quite a good file.”

The 10DS serves a different purpose.

The small profile and light weight of the 10DS are ideal for Friedman’s work on the political trail. “I’m heading to New Hampshire to follow John Kerry in and out of store fronts along Main Street,” he explained. “The 10DS is smaller so I can move faster. It may sound silly, but if only two photographers can get through that doorway, I’m going to be one of them. On this sort of project if I can’t fit it in my pocket, I’m not taking it.”

Portability, durability, power, and storage

The rigors of adventure photography pose a different set of digital challenges. For Tim Tadder of San Diego, who spends days at a time far from power sources and often travels through rugged terrain to get there, digital carries some distinct advantages over film.

Tadder shoots with the Nikon D100 for travel and expedition. Not only is it small and lightweight with a 6-mega-pixel raw file, but Tadder says the new lithium ion batteries and digital storage devices have allowed him to leave both heavy equipment and worries at home.

“Each lithium ion battery weighs about 6 oz. and can capture 300 to 400 images before it dies. Then I just download those images onto a 30 gigabyte digital wallet,” Tadder said. “With the digital medium I can realistically shoot 200 rolls of film or more where you couldn’t carry that much film before. And not only can I carry it, but it’s easier to keep it safe and dry, and I don’t have to worry about 90 degree heat.”

The business of digital

John Gillooly (pei1@erols.com) of Professional Event Images, Inc. is a Boston-based specialist in events photography. For Gillooly, going digital was a business decision. Picking which digital camera to use was largely a matter of continuity.

“I use the Nikon D1x because I was already on the Nikon platform,” he said. “When you’ve got $15,000 worth of lenses sitting there, you’re already on the Nikon road.”

While Gillooly loves the features of his digital camera—such as changing ISO and white balance on the fly and the lossless color to black and white capabilities- he is most excited about what the digital camera has done for his business model. As an example, Gillooly cited his work on the Gravity Games where he captured some 6000 images during the six-day event. He was shooting for three clients: e-Map, NBC, and Octagon Marketing, all working together from the same budget with the Gravity games as a shared sports property.

“In the past I would have shot that event, sent a box of contact sheets to one of them, then those contact sheets would be circulated from one to the next over a four-month period,” he said. “Now I can provide each with complete sets of contact sheets and CDs right away. I can also load these to an e-commerce web site within minutes of an event. That earns me a lot more money because I have more to offer in a more timely manner.”

For Gillooly, one of the biggest differences between digital and film is the increased amount of services and products he can offer his clients. “It used to be that a client had only one option: a 5 x 7 print,” he said. “Now they can order a print, a low resolution image for the Web, a medium resolution image for newspaper, and full resolution for one of their brochures. It allows me to give better service, it removes the scanning procedure, and I get quality control since I’m the one doing the work.”

Software and technical support

When selecting a digital system, software and technical support should also be considered. For Atkinson, the switch from Leaf to Sinar was beneficial for more than just its multi-shot/single-shot capabilities. The Sinar software was a breath of fresh air after eight years using the Leaf.

“The Leaf software, as well as other systems we looked at, seemed like it was written by engineers, but the Sinar software has the feel that it was written by and for photographers,” he said.

Atkinson also appreciates Sinar’s free software updates. “A lot of people say digital cameras only have a life of a year or two, but if they’re constantly refining and upgrading the software, that’s not the case.”

Embracing digital

For photographers used to working with film, making the switch to digital can seem daunting. But, says Tim Tadder, digital is not just the wave of the future, it’s here to stay. Understanding the technology, making it part of your business model rather than just the way you take pictures, and educating your clients about the benefits can be the difference between success and failure.

“There’s a lot of talk about how much more digital equipment costs, but if you look over time, the amount of money you can recoup from clients easily makes up for it,” he said. “You get to try more things and push the envelope without worrying about who’s going to pay for that roll of film or the half hour it took you to try that interesting angle that turned out to be nothing.”

His clients, Tadder said, are finally embracing the technology. “I shot a job last Saturday for a client who insisted on film in addition to digital, but I haven’t even taken it out of the camera,” he said. “They looked at the gallery the day after the shoot and haven’t once asked ‘Where’s the film?’

I’m not only a child of the digital world, I’m carrying the flag. I’m out there every day educating my clients about what to do with my product, why it’s superior and why digital is what they want.”

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